Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Jim Holland said:
>
>  
>
> > My point was that looking for an "easy
> > fix" like a diet deficiency would not be my first
> > assumption when trying to solve a spook problem. 
> > However, there are many OTHER indicators which would
> > tell me what the "personality" of that horse is and
> > how to deal with it. It's not a "one fix" problem, but
> > no matter WHAT you do with diet, you MUST provide the
> > training or live with the spook. The point is, simply adding
> > magnesium to a magnesium deficient diet, IMHO, is not
> > going to result in a "magical" change in behavior.
> >    
>
> It might.  If the cause of the horse's spookiness is hyperexcitability of
> the CNS due to a magnesium deficiency, then if you get rid of the magnesium
> deficiency, then you get rid of the hyperexcitability of the CNS and you
> get rid of the spookiness, all without having done any training at all.
>  
Your first response would be determined by the likelihood that a 
deficiency exist. How common is magnesium deficiencies in horses? Face 
it our horses in general have a better diet than we do. If magnesium 
deficiencies are common - yep it's something you want to look at. If 
they are not - say one in 1,000 or even one in 100 you probably would 
look elsewhere as the prime problem and while you are at it pull blood 
to check for a defiency.

I doubt if magnesium deficiency is all that common in endurance horses 
since it would lead to other problems that would show up because of the 
imbalance in electrolytes.

So the 64 dollar question here is "how common are magnesium deficiencies?"

Truman


--

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite 
of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."    Niels Bohr 
-- Nobel Laureate, Physics




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